Anger has been coded as masculine and unfeminine for most of recorded history, and women who express it have been dismissed, pathologised, or punished. This session explored what happens when that suppressed rage becomes visible — in MeToo, in TikTok activism, and in the aesthetic of female rage now circulating online. We asked whether rage is transformative or self-limiting, and how intersectionality changes who gets to be angry — and who pays for it.
Materials
Main
- YouTube video on Anger vs Sadness — why women are pushed toward sadness and away from anger (YouTube · 15 min)
- MeToo movement and female rage — short Guardian article on what the movement unleashed (article · The Guardian)
- This paper on the transformative power of female anger in politics — read the Abstract, Introduction and Conclusion (paper · PDF)
- This thesis on TikTok and female rage — read the Introduction (p. 1), Digital activism (p. 22–26), and Reflection on own biases (p. 41–42) (thesis · PDF)
- YouTube video on Female Rage by Shanespeare — a thorough and highly recommended deep dive (YouTube · 45 min)
Supplementary
- Arte documentary on female rage with English subtitles — highly recommended (documentary · Arte · 30 min)
- Podcast on female rage — not the easiest listen, but with some interesting remarks (podcast · Spotify · 1h)
- A playlist of female rage songs — feel free to add your own (Spotify playlist)
Session structure
- What is anger, and what are women taught to do with it?
- Sadness is coded as more womanly; anger as a loss of femininity
- "People need to calm down to have a discussion" — how this framing keeps injustice in place
- Little Women: "Repress your anger, the problem is you"
- The angry women script — being reduced to one emotion instead of acknowledging frustration, fear, grief
- Historical and cultural context
- Men created the first stories of female rage — what does that tell us?
- The "final girl" trope in horror: the one who deserves to live is chaste, restrained
- Female rage is accepted when it's fictional, but policed on social media
- The "good for her" trope — films where women get justified revenge
- MeToo and political anger
- What did MeToo unleash? What did it leave unresolved?
- Female anger as political fuel — and how it gets coopted
- Maya Angelou, "Still I Rise" — as a counterpoint
- TikTok and the female rage aesthetic
- Digital activism: how the platform shapes the message
- Sad girl aesthetics → female rage aesthetics — is it a catalyst for change or rebranding?
- Stereotype of the "angry Black woman" — who pays the highest price for female rage?
- How to channel rage
- Organising and political engagement as an outlet
- Intersectionality — take racism into account when talking about women's anger
- Female rage can also be linked to helplessness, not only personal hurt
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